Electronic Drum Kits

[lifeisacabaret]

Hi guys..

 

Pretty simple question....If I had an electronic drum kit (say, 10 outs) and I wanted it in the PA, would I need a DI for each output? Or could it just go straight into the PA with no DI's?

[paulears]

DI's would be best. consider it as 10 separate unbalanced outputs - you could try an feeding the device in direct, unbalancing the XLRs - many have floating power supplies, so the ground issue may not be as troublesome as you might expect.

[Shez]

There's likely to be a stereo mix available from the kit too. Last time I had to deal with one, that's what I used, which the drummer was quite happy with. It was going down a 40m multi so was DI'ed.

[Matt Riley]

I think with some, you can take a stereo feed into the PA, but wouldn't recommend it. Its times like this that rackmount DI boxes come into their own! Unless I was bodging it, then I would most definitely go for the DI option in this instance.

[dbuckley]

Some drum sound modules have a stereo out plus a couple of individuals, so you can have kick, sare, and "the rest" which is not perfect but workable.

 

With these sorts of modules you can also (with agreement of the drummer) take control of parameters such as volume via MIDI, so a PC1600 off eBay and you've go faders for the kit. Another job for the monitor engineer :(

[Rob_Beech]

give em somet to do.

 

Risk of a me too here but the DI option is best. unless you are short on channels on th board, think yourself lucky you have so much control over the kit. I've not done too much with electronic kits but the majority of those I have worked with have been a left and right out. thats your mix, live with it sort of thing.

things like th DI800 are great here, they're not at all expense and give you 8 DI channels with a few little options in a 1u space. Couple of those and you should be set for a number of keyboards too if the keyboard player (like me) decides he or she wants lots of keyboards, in stereo.

 

Rob

[StevieR]

Assuming the mixer is out front then yes, use DI's as this will result in less signal degradation on the runs to the desk. If, however, the mixer is close to the kit on the stage, then DI's may well be unnecessary.

 

Remember, the main purpose of a DI box is to balance the signal to help reduce unwanted noise/interference being induced on a cable. This becomes more of an issue on longer runs (i.e. >5m). On anything shorter, you would be hard pressed to notice the difference unless in an extremely poor environment.

 

Steve

[lifeisacabaret]

The desk is digital, with 2 stageboxes, so there'll be one located right with the band (who will be backstage) and another with the radios and amps. In that case, bearing in mind the run from the drum module to the stagebox could be less than 2m, would DI's be rendered unnecessary?

[MarkPAman]

Is the sound converted to digital at the stage box? If so then you may get away without the DIs. If the multicore is analogue though, you need to take the length of that into account, and use DIs.

[lifeisacabaret]

All digital co-ax.

 

But presumably the sound modules output with 1/4" jacks, and the ins on the stageboxes are (definitely) XLR........

[MarkPAman]

You'll probably be OK without any DIs then. I would suggest that you know where to get some from quickly, just in case! :D

 

Edit, after your edit: You will need to make up/get hold of some jack (TS) to male XLR leads. If you do not have these already, the Behringer 8 chan DI may be cheaper!

Tip - Pin 2

Screen - Pin 1 & 3

[Bobbsy]

A slight disagreement from me on that...

 

You may get away with a long unbalanced run much of the time, but doing it this way will come back and bite you eventually since every venue is going to be different. With the relatively low cost of the 8-way Behringer DI, I don't think it's worth the risk.

 

....so we're saying the same thing, just with a different emphasis.

 

Bob

[MarkPAman]

................a long unbalanced run.............

<2 metres is not long in my book.

[paulears]

I think what Bob means is that you can often use long unbalanced cable - you don't always get problems. I don't think he meant the 2 mtr short ones. For what it's worth - if you have digital stage boxes, then perhaps you could afford better DIs - we're not talking budget here, I've just realised

[Bobbsy]

Well...I guess I meant a mix of the two. Two metres isn't a long run...but it's long enough for problems if it happens to pass (for example) near a dimmed lighting circuit. (I've hit this one on a theatre show where the music stand lights were on dimmers...even a very short lead picked up a horrible buzz.) Depending on the A-D electronics at the stage end of the snake, there's also the possibility of problems (often crosstalk) when you mix balanced and unbalanced inputs in the same connector panel.

 

Similarly, though it doesn't apply on this particular one, a TS to XLR adaptor lead plugged into an analogue snake is still an unbalanced feed and subject to possible interference for the whole run. I've seen people who assume their problems go away simply by converting to an XLR-terminated cable.

 

The main thing I'm trying to say was that the "try it and see" method may work if you're in a fixed location, but if you're a travelling band, what works nine times in a row may throw up serious problems on the tenth time.

 

Bob